Rock on! Asteroids Cocktail Restoration

[opt2not]

Restoration complete!
Here's how it looks now, after lots of repairs to the board and the monitor chassis:






First post:
One of my producers at work brought in his Asteroids Cocktail for me to fix up and restore. He tells me he bought it from a guy who left it out in his alleyway, in the rain for 4 months, and ended up buying it off him for really cheap.
Afterward, it was stored in his basement for almost 6 years, giving it ample amount of time to dry out. During this time he didn't attempt to turn it on, in hopes that one day he'd meet someone to help him bring it back to life. Enter me -- a lowly animator with an arcade obsession.
I asked him to attempt turning on the power and see what the internal damage is like. He powered-up the machine and heard a Loud buzzing coming from audio hardware. Some good red LED on the boards came on, and the tube has glow. He said that one of the LEDs on the board was a bit flickery, so I'm sure the power supply is going to need a re-haul in addition to a mass capacitor swap, and re-soldering/flowing of all the connections. Definitely a long-term restore.

I'm actually quite impressed by the state of the cabinet, since it was exposed to the harsh rainy conditions of West-coast Canada for so long. There isn't really any wood damage, no chips or scratches. It just has a ton of rust, and dirt to clean up.

I think I can bring this baby back. As long as I can finish some of the other things I'm working on at the moment.
He plans on keeping it here at the office for us to enjoy (we work in the gaming industry, and there are a lot of young guys here that never got to experience the charm of playing asteroids on a real vector display).

Here are a bunch of pictures for you all to see:

Such a gorgeous looking cocktail, even in the shape it's currently in. I really love the design of these old Atari cabinets.


The previous owner didn't have the key to the lock, currently being held up by tape   Those scuff marks are actually left-over adhesive from the tape that was used. That'll clean up easily!


Side shots. As you can see, the profile looks good. No wood damage, or warping!  Amazing. I'm assuming that the rainfall landed and trickled off the top onto the legs and missed the wood-panels. If it was in an alley way, it may have been  protected by the wind as well, so i'm assuming downward water exposure is all that it endured.


The coin door is in ok shape. With all the metal parts on this machine, i'll have to take a wire-wheel to it all to clean up some of the erosion. I plan on taking the same technique I did with my midway coin door, and spray-paint it after stripping with a metallic silver. Turns out nice looking, as well as protected from additional exposure.


The glass clips are really rusted, and they're the incorrect ones! Looks like these are Midway cocktail clips. I'll clean them up and repaint anyways for possible re-use.
Also, the start buttons still look to be in decent shape. t-molding, not so much.


Here's a few closer shots of the legs. Rusty dirty McNasties!  Also missing those square leg caps that I'll have to order from bobroberts or arcadeshop.



The underlay decals are fairly flaked. I know there is an underlay from Arcadeshop that I can probably get as a replacement. But what I saw, they're missing the Atari logo on the screen area.  I might have to try to re-stencil it.


Shots of the atari logo and black monitor outline. Also notice the cardboard bezel is torn a bit. Gah, gotta replace that. For the outline, the Arcadeshop underlay has that included, so I can potentially strip off this paint with some wood-alcohol (like I did with my Canucks Cocktail).



Control panels. The CPO looks good, there isn't much needed done to them other than a cleaning. No cigarette burns woohoo!  The buttons need a good cleaning though, or perhaps a replacement with shiny new ones.


Very little screen burn, just a faint image of the high score list and INSERT COIN. Hopefully I can bring the monitor back to life, and with such little burn, the tube looks to be good.


Innards.


Hello big blue!  ...and eventually good-bye!  First order of business will be to take the PS out of there and give it a good cleaning and recappin'.


Original Asteroids PCB. Looks to be in good condition. I didn't inspect it fully, but at first glance there wasn't any burns or damage that i could see. Just a lot of dust.


The sound board connections look shotty. Like all the internals, we're going to have to pull this out and fix 'em up!

All in all, there is a lot of work to be done to get this going. But it will definitely get a lot of use in the office, and it's a classic cabinet that deserves to be brought back to it's glory-days!
I plan on going full-boar on this one in the new year, and am going to hold off on my Robotron restore till I can at least get the internals working on this one.

[opt2not]

Did a bit more looking around in the cabinet, found some labels and a small chip-box of these:


I'll have to bring up the manual schematics and see what these guys are. *edit* Looks like these are code eproms**.


Board rev # I presume.


It's got a G05-805 in it.


Here's a shot of the monitor neck. Really dirty.


Tube labels.


Whoa! Lots of plays!

[opt2not]

Shopping:
- Asteroids Cocktail Glass Underlay
- Cocktail cardboard monitor bezel
- 3/4” Black Smooth T-Molding
- Atari Cocktail Glass Clips

- Electrohome G05-805 B&W X/Y Monitor Cap Kit
- Atari A/R and A/R II-01 Power supply Rebuild Kit
- Atari AC Power Supply Repair Kit
- Atari Asteroids Short Button Set (white)


- Asteroids High score kit with extended scoring



Links:
- Manuals
- Asteroids Troubleshooting Encyclopedia
- KLOV entry
- Andy's Arcade asteroids page
- USB Design Tech Asteroids PCB Repair Reference

- Bob Robert's AR Board notes
- Bob's big-blue info
- Bob's PS notes

- vector mailing list archives
- tips on testing Atari power supply readings
- Testing Atari Power Supplies
- Misc monitor questions on arcade-museum
- Misc G05-802/805 repair info
- G05-802 Monitor ID Page
- Misc repair log on mad-web
- USB Design Tech Asteroids Troubleshooting page
- Misc Repair-log info
- Misc PS and identification tech help
- Misc PCB repair tips via Braze Technologies
- Diode and Transistor testing
- How to use an Oscilloscope
- Ataricade
- Treaded cocktail table leg levelers aka glides
- Dezbaz's Vector page
- arcadefever's restoration
- csa3d's resto & arcade-museum post

To-Do List:

Structural
- Disassemble cabinet, remove all hardware
- Clean cabinet
- Remove T-molding
- Deep clean cabinet (wood) and assess internal damage
- Assess Atari Logo damage and plan of restoration
- Find Leg caps, clean 'em
- Clean &  Strip glass underlay with wood alcohol & razor (Polish glass if necessary).
- installed t-molding, new art underlay, monitor bezel onto top-glass piece
- installed t-molding to main cabinet
- Strip rust and old paint off all metal legs. repaint
- Re-paint metal components and screws (satin black)
- reassemble cabinet

Coin Mech
- Check coin reject functionality and coin type
- Disassemble, clean and strip rust
- Paint/seal metal parts
- Install new coin-return bulb

Control Panels
- Clean buttons
- Clean and assess CPO and metal further
- Clean/Restore CP metal, harness and switches

Internals
- Clean, rebuild/recap PS
- Clean, rebuild/recap  AR board
- Check voltages after power component rebuild
- Clean and check pins, solder, voltages on PCB
- Clean harnesses/wires/connectors
       - Replace where needed
- Clean, rebuild/recap Monitor chassis, HV board

- Investigate no vector image problem. Game plays blind, monitor has neck glow, spot-killer is lit. When turning up the brightness I get squiggly lines and a bright dot in the center of the screen. Possibly PCB isn't quite right yet.

[drventure]

Bring that back and you've earned a beer from me!

But I suppose considering it sat outside in the rain, it's not in +that+ bad a shape.

Still, that looks like a big project to resurrect.

Good luck!

[opt2not]

Bring that back and you've earned a beer from me!

But I suppose considering it sat outside in the rain, it's not in +that+ bad a shape.

Still, that looks like a big project to resurrect.

Good luck!

Right on! I do love me my beers :p
Thanks drventure, I going to try to keep this one as organized as possible so it doesn't get out of control. If I have good visibility of all needed tasks, I should be able to stay on top of the progress. In theory of course
Besides, my other cocktail restore/renovation wasn't too bad, and it was in a little better condition than this one.

[Spyridon]

One of my producers (and founders) at work brought in his Asteroids Cocktail for me to fix up and restore.

Tell him he can afford to purchase a fully working one and to give that one to you (after he pays for all the new parts of course)

and am going to hold off on my Robotron restore till I can at least get the internals working on this one.

Good luck with this one.  Really good shape considering it's circumstances.  Should be a fun project.

[opt2not]

Tell him he can afford to purchase a fully working one and to give that one to you (after he pays for all the new parts of course)

Heh, I'm working on that!

Good luck with this one.  Really good shape considering it's circumstances.  Should be a fun project.

Thanks buddy! This will be my first Atari cabinet I've worked on and I'm hoping to learn a bunch about them. So far I've got Williams and Midway cabs and under my belt. 

[Rick]

Wow, if that was all 'quarter travel', that's $22,647!  In 1981, the median household income in the U.S. was $19,074, as per this page.  Nice project.

[opt2not]

Wow, if that was all 'quarter travel', that's $22,647!  In 1981, the median household income in the U.S. was $19,074, as per this page.  Nice project.

If we're assuming that this thing was in service from it's manufacturing date (1979) to say, the crash of '83 -- that's about $5661/year. Seems like a pretty penny! If this cabinet was in a restaurant or bar, or perhaps a pizza joint, that's a nice little boost of cash for the owners back then! 

Did some more looking around, found that the service door seems to be mounted a bit too low for me to put in my replacement lock. I don't like the idea of the tape being the only thing holding the door closed...had a nightmare last night of the door swinging open and slamming the mounted PCB onto the floor and cracking (yes, i dream of arcade machines):

There's a half-inch gap there that opens up into the cabinet. Not good. I'll have to re-mount this door properly after I do my tear-down and reassemble.

[saleem]

real common problem with atari cocktail doors,the bad fit that happens after years,got 2 missile command cocktails and both same with door,1 not so bad as the other.

mind 1 has brilliant art owrk on it,like the one you got but,its missile command.

[opt2not]

real common problem with atari cocktail doors,the bad fit that happens after years,got 2 missile command cocktails and both same with door,1 not so bad as the other.

mind 1 has brilliant art owrk on it,like the one you got but,its missile command.

Looks like a matter of re-seating the door latches and tightening screws. Not sure what the cause is but if I were take a guess, the exposure/moisture may have loosened up the wood where the latches are screwed in, then the weight of the door + pcb may have "drifted" the latch screws. I looked at the latches and they seem to not be tightly mounted.

I *may* have to cut a new door piece if the screwed holes are weak.

Thanks for the info saleem! AND btw, your MC looks gorgeous, and I was very impressed by your Space Zap resto.
Like Silas said:

I am surprised you're not getting more comments.

 

[opt2not]

I emptied the cabinet for cleaning during my lunch-break yesterday.
Got a better look at the parts and their condition.

Gonna rebuild and clean-up these:


Here's a better look at the monitor. The burn really isn't that bad:


Hmm, I thought the CP's were in better condition, but it looks like the front edges are pretty scratched up. I just wiped it all down, I'm going to do a more deep cleaning to see if I can get the buttons more white:


A more thorough look at the PCB shows that there is a little bit of burn on the edge connection. I'll clean this up when I get to it, but if that's the extent of the damage, I'm pretty happy with it:

[Spyridon]

I emptied the cabinet for cleaning during my lunch-break yesterday.
I'm going to do a more deep cleaning to see if I can get the buttons more white:

Just buy new buttons.  They are cheap and bright white buttons look really good.

[Spyridon]

Is that an overlay on the control panels or is the artwork screened onto the panel?

[saleem]

the art on these is screened,i got 2 missile command ccktails and they both have pretty good art on them considering they are nigh on 30 years old.

just dab in some similar enamel paint to cover the scratching.

[Spyridon]

If you can scan the panels, Rich at TOG can re-screen them directly on the panel  (but yours look like you may get away with just a touch up)

[opt2not]

 When I took the glass off, more of the art flaked off. It feels really brittle as well.
Arcadeshop has an underlay that looks to be a decent replacement.

It's printed on what looks like a transparent acetate. This might be the best course of action.

Just buy new buttons.  They are cheap and bright white buttons look really good.

Yeah you're probably right, I'm not too confident that I can get the buttons bright enough.

[jennifer]

         Sometimes you can save the rotten area with fiberglass resin, chip off the pucker and smear light coats, sanding between.
  Looks like a fun project. Good luck!

[opt2not]

If you can scan the panels, Rich at TOG can re-screen them directly on the panel  (but yours look like you may get away with just a touch up)

Yeah I was thinking I could touch-up the front side since the top parts are in good condition. Getting them re-screened would be a fallback plan. There are repro CPO's available too, if I wanted to go that route.

[opt2not]

Spot-checked more today, found a resistor diode with some burn on the AR board around it:

[snarly]

Hi!  I just bot one of these so I will be watching your progress

Can you do me a favor and tell me what are the dimensions and weight?  I bot mine without seeing it and will be picking it up some time this weekend - need to make sure I can lift it and fit it in my jeep!

Thanks,
Chris

[opt2not]

The dimensions are:

Width = 30 1/2"
Height = 27 1/2" (depending on the leg configuration. you can adjust the height with the appropriate sized hex key)
Depth = 21"

I'm not sure about the weight. I'd say it's between 150 - 200 lbs. Not something you wanna lift yourself, but with care and a dolly you'd probably be able to solo it.

[snarly]

Thanks, much appreciated!
I will post when I get and what all I end up having to do with it.....

I do have a few projects already -
Baby pacman - almost done but the monitor is still giving me some issues.
Tekken 3:  also monitor issues

Chris
located in Jersey City across from Manhattan.

[opt2not]

Not much of an update. 
I've got parts ordered and on the way, and did a little work on cleaning up the cabinet. I went around with a magic eraser to clean off the vinyl, and goo-gone'd some leftover adhesive that was around the cab. 
I also cleaned up the Serial sticker, and removed the FCC one that was in rough shape.

Before


After (sorry for the blurred pic)

[opt2not]

Did a few things over the last few weeks. The top-glass piece is complete. After taking it all apart, I found that the previous owner had used electrical tape for the black outlines under the glass, which was a pain in the bum because of the left-over adhesive residue. I goo-gone'd it, and cleaned off the wood laminate with a magic eraser. It's now clean.
I then stripped the old t-molding, and installed new ones.
The underlay art was really flaking when I took the glass off. Seems that some of it was stuck to the wood laminate and ripped off when I took it apart.
But it didn't matter since I was going to strip it anyways and install a repro decal underlay. I took a razor and some wood-alcohol and spent a lunch-hour removing the decals.
It's now a clean glass.
After putting in the newly purchased underlay, monitor bezel, and t-molding, the top piece is now complete and put aside to work on the other parts. I forgot to take pictures of it while I was at the office, so post pictures of it when I get a chance tomorrow.

I took a look at the cabinet itself. Cleaned the insides, lots of dust, moth balls, spider webs/dead eggs...but luckily nothing worse. During the cleaning, I noticed the bottom base panel was loose.  It turns out one side of the base wasn't even securely attached!  I think this is the reason the access door was sagging. I glued and screwed it back up, and now it's solid. *phew* Imagine over time if the weight of the innards caused the bottom to fall out!



Today, I took a break from my art commissions and did some work on the legs.
I initially cleaned them as best I could, but I really couldn't get them looking good enough. I figured that'd be the case anyways. So I used my trusty wire-wheel and drill and stripped the paint, rust and dirt with plans to repaint them.
It took about 20 mins per leg and some elbow-grease to get it down to the bare metal.


After wiping off the paint dust, I then sprayed it with down with Rustoleum Hammered Black. The texture is nice and is a match from the original look.


I also picked up some leg glides (aka levelers) from Home Depot. They sell a drop-in replacement (Shepherd 1-1/16" Threaded Stem Glides) that is a perfect match.


Here's how it looked before:


and here it is after. Practically brand new!:


I still have to install the square caps, but I'm marking the legs off as done!

[yotsuya]

Great job so far, man!

[opt2not]

Great job so far, man!

Thanks bud! 

Here are a few shots of the glass top. I haven't added the Atari Decals yet, but will do so before putting the cabinet back together. The Atari decals are just "peel and stick".

New T-molding, new atari NOS glass clips, new repro underlay artwork, new monitor bezel (glossy - rounded)

Here's a close-up of the new artwork underlay and NOS clips. Yay, no peeling artwork! As you can see, the underlay is see-through. I have to line it up better to the edge so you can't see the line, but it's barely noticeable under the glass anyways (the flash brings it out more).

[opt2not]

I took the buttons out and soaked them in household bleach and dish soap overnight.
Before:


After:


They cleaned up ok, but not completely white. The holders seemed to clean up much better than the button plungers. I know these buttons are cheap (bob roberts has a set of 5 for $10), but I figured I'd try to clean up the originals and see how far I could get. In the end, I'm just going to by new ones as suggested. Having bright white buttons on a CP is just too sexy.

[saleem]

magic eraser perhaps?
 

[opt2not]

Yeah, I used a magic eraser right after the soaking. The problem is that it's not surface dirt or grime, it's the plastic that has yellowed. I've read up on it; over time when plastic is exposed to UV light, the bromine content in it tends to cause yellowing.
There are a few methods out there that can turn your old plastics white again, like Retr0brite, or using Technical Grade Hydrogen Peroxide and sunlight...but with the cost of putting those materials together, I might as well just buy new buttons. Besides, in Vancouver, we get very little sun this time of year.

[opt2not]

A couple weeks ago, my producer buddy was able to find all the leg caps for this thing in his basement. They were just a little bit scratched up, but good enough to re-use so we felt there was no need to order new ones. I cleaned them with an Magic Eraser, and I placed them onto the newly restored legs, they're a done-deal!:




After stripping and re-painting all the bolts, I'll reassemble the cabinet before tackling the electrical work. Stay tuned.

[opt2not]

Strip and painted the bolts and grills last night:


At lunch today I started reassembling the cabinet and applied the rest of the t-molding.




Still gotta put the service door back on, and the grills aren't in there yet. That's coming up. The t-molding and assembly too most of my lunch hour.
After that, I'm onto restoring the CP.

[Spyridon]

This is really shaping up nicely.   

[Woodshop Flunky]

  This is looking groovy!

[opt2not]

Did a little bit of work today on the coin panel.



First I took it apart:


Used my good ol' wire-wheel and drill to strip the rust, grime off the metal parts, as well as the paint off the coin-return flap.
If you notice the old photo, there was some calcium buildup on the square frame parts (sorry, don't know their names), they only needed to be cleaned up with the wire-wheel:
The panel itself was then spray-painted with Rustoleum Metallic Silver, which IMO is a nicer finish to the scraped metal look. The coin-return flap was also repainted.

[saleem]

spraying the coin entry plate thing,have you not lost the grain effect it had?

it looks ok but,drawback with spray is,a part that bshould be steel ends up being spray paint and i would pick up on that where some might not.

they had a vertical line grain effect.

i grew to appreciate some of the things that come with used machines now,i would have been particualr months ago now i have come to love the weathered used look some parts have.
 

[opt2not]

spraying the coin entry plate thing,have you not lost the grain effect it had?

it looks ok but,drawback with spray is,a part that bshould be steel ends up being spray paint and i would pick up on that where some might not.

they had a vertical line grain effect.

i grew to appreciate some of the things that come with used machines now,i would have been particualr months ago now i have come to love the weathered used look some parts have.
 

This is true, it does lose the grain-effect. But I'm not really too worried about it. I think it looks pretty good, and makes the coin door "pop" a bit more. It also goes a bit better with the coin "frame" squares...besides, only the purists will pick up on it

Here's a better comparison of it installed:

[csa3d]

Great job so far, man!

Thanks bud! 

Here are a few shots of the glass top. I haven't added the Atari Decals yet, but will do so before putting the cabinet back together. The Atari decals are just "peel and stick".

New T-molding, new atari NOS glass clips, new repro underlay artwork, new monitor bezel (glossy - rounded)

Here's a close-up of the new artwork underlay and NOS clips. Yay, no peeling artwork! As you can see, the underlay is see-through. I have to line it up better to the edge so you can't see the line, but it's barely noticeable under the glass anyways (the flash brings it out more).

These look pretty good!  I haven't even thought about my cab in forever, thanks for making me wanna dig it back out! 

-csa

[opt2not]

These look pretty good!  I haven't even thought about my cab in forever, thanks for making me wanna dig it back out! 

-csa

I hope you do, you're so close! I got a lot of information from your posts, only seems right I trade you some inspiration

Another quick update...worked on getting the CP's restored. I taped off the top area, masking the silk-screened artwork (which was still in great condition) right below the bottom line. I figured this would be a good spot to divide the new paint from the old. I then scraped off some of the loose flaking paint that was on the front side:


After painting I removed the tape, and voila!


Close up of the division. Works for me!:

[Spyridon]

Looking really good.  I like the look on the coin door.

(now finish this up so you can get back to working on Robotron)

[opt2not]

Looking really good.  I like the look on the coin door.

(now finish this up so you can get back to working on Robotron)

Thanks bro, I'm really happy with how it's turning out so far. I find the aesthetic stuff to be the easy part, it's the electrical portion that will be the real challenge.

Believe me, Robotron is on the list this year too. It's my resolution  

[Kman-Sweden]

Stunning work.

[opt2not]

Stunning work.

Thank you kindly Kman!


Small update:

The CP's are done!  I received my latest order from Bob Roberts, including some new leaf-push buttons (thanks for the advice Spyridon)!

They're all nice and bright white, and the springs feel nice and new. Here's a comparison to the old ones:


Bob's Atari Asteroids Short Button Set is what I ordered. The shape of the buttons are slightly different, the plunger itself has a sharper bevel on the top edges, not a big deal as they look great and no one's going to know the difference.
As well, his version of the buttons has eliminated the need for an e-clip to keep the plunger mounted to the casing. The "stopper" is molded into the plastic:

I'm not sure if this is a good thing, in terms of cleaning and maintaining the buttons over time, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

The old leafs were in good condition to re-use, so I cleaned them up as well as the wiring, and installed it onto the CP's:

I'm using the old button holders as they were in fine condition, though a bit off-white due to age, but who cares they'll never be seen.

Here's how the CP's look now, beauty!:





Along with my latest order I picked up some electronic parts that include:

• 1N4001 - Diode replacements for the A/R board.
• 1000uf50volt axial - Capacitors for the AC Power supply
• 6800uf50volt radial  - The 2 big capacitors for my monitor
• Xcelite Flushcutters - High quality flushcutters. I was getting really annoyed at trimming cap/resistor legs with a straight wire-cutter. Flush cutters make it easier!
• Circuit Breaker Tester - Saw this on Bob's site, figured the $5 was worth the hassle of blowing fuses once I finish the electrical work and start testing power cycling.

I'm in the middle of doing all my cap-kit installs, as well as the clean-up of the boards, then onto the monitor stuff. The whole next step is to get the game working! 

Keep Rockin'! 

[opt2not]

Recapped the AC PS, and the AR board last night. I'll post pictures later, but it's not too exciting of a change other than they're both cleaner and big-blue is now a big-black (Richey) that I bought off Bob Roberts.
I also replaced that burnt diode on the AR without any troubles.

Using dokert's trusty PS testing tips over at klov, I checked voltages on the AC block first:

Power Brick
Remove the big 15 pin connector P5
 
***V***V***
*1***2***3*
*4***5***6*
*7***8***9*
*10**11**12*
*13**14**15*
***********
 
Meter set to 20vdc
Red lead to pins 1, 2, 3
Black lead to pins 4, 5
Reading should be 10.3 vdc (could read high 13vdc as it is unregulated)

I got 14.31 vdc without load. Might be a bit high...I tested the diodes on the Rectifier Board, (since I have an older version it doesn't have the bridge rectifier like many atari blocks have). They checked out fine. Other than big-blue and the fuse block and fuses (which were replaced with new ones), there really isn't much to this block other than the isolation transformer which apparently never dies!

So I'm not quite sure why the voltage out of these pins are so high. I'll do a bit more reading and researching, it just might be that it's not under load.

Meter set to 200vac
Red lead to pin 6
Black lead to pin 7
Reading should be 36 vac

36 vac for me, perfect.
 

Meter set to 20vac
Red lead to pin 8
Black lead to pin 9
Reading should be 6.3vac

6.5 vac, slightly high, but might be ok.
 

Meter set to 200vac
Red lead to pin 10
Black lead to Pin 14
Reading should be 80vac

I have no pins for 10 and 14. I think his guide is for the stand-up, which may be the reason I don't see these pins on my brick. Those pins may be for powering the Marquee light and extra coin lamp.

Meter set to 200vac
Red lead to pin 11
Black lead to pin 13
Reading should be 65vac

I got 61.1 vac, this might be too low.

A/R I
Remove the 9 pin connector P7 (P5 on the power brick must be plugged back in)
 
__^__^__
*1**2**3*
*4**5**6*
*7**8**9*
*********
 
Set meter to 20vdc
Red lead to pins 5, 6
Black lead to pins 1, 4
Reading should be +5vdc (could be as high as 7 or 8 vdc because there is no load)

With my voltage selector turned all the way down, without load the reading was 5.46 vdc.  Looks fine to me, I can adjust it further afterward.

I think it'll be safe to plug in the game board after I clean and re-cap it as well to see what kind of readings I get then. Though I'm going to recheck the block and see if any solder or connections are loose or faulty, to see if I can get closer voltages to what Dokert posted.

That'll be next! Rock yeah.  

[opt2not]

Cleaned up the Game PCB, recapped it:


Plugged it in and gave it power. Everything lit up, nothing smoked!
The pcb led was lit, and the P1 and P2 buttons were flashing.

At least the power is now flowing! I checked voltages at the 5v and 10v PCB test points.  Was able to adjust the AR board to get a good 5v running through, but the 10v line was sitting around 12.4.  That's pretty high for my liking.

Checking through the troubleshooting encyclopedia, blinking P1 and P2 start buttons could mean 1 of three possibilities listed:

a. Fix: Check the power supply, the large capacitor sometimes comes loose, you'll have to remove it from the cabinet to check it from the bottom.

b. Fix: When my board had that problem, it turned out to be loose caps on the board. Specifically, the largish ones on the right upper side. They mostly have to do with the sound FX circuits. But, if they come loose and make/break contact, they send surges that reset the board. The other suggestions I've seen are valid too. Those caps however, since they stick up off the board, may tend to get loose first, but you should probably check all solder joints.

c. Fix: Resocket all EPROMs.

I checked Big Blue (black), it was fine, nicely secured to the Rectifier Board. Checked around each cap on the PCB and AR, again nicely secured, soldering was fine. I'm going to re-socket the EPROMS tonight and see if that changes anything.

Another solution I read for lowering the 10v line is: I can try thoroughly cleaning the edge connector and making sure the harness connectors, and header pins are good. Because this machine was left out in the rain, I might need to go and replace the pins here and there as they may be rusted. Looks like more thorough spot checking is in order.

Also, here are some of the pictures of the newly re-capped and cleaned-up PS and AR.

New big blue cap, and new fuse block and fuses:

The PS isn't as pristine as I could have made it, there are stains in the metal that I didn't bother trying to scrub out. I just made sure the dirt and grime was off.

I replaced that old charred Diode on the AR with a new one from Bob:


I figured it's about time to get some more eyes on this restoration, so I'm going to start up a thread on KLOV since they've got a lot of experienced restoration and maintenance guys there that might be able to chime in on my power situation. They like posts with pictures too, and you know I love posting pictures!

In the meantime, I got a bunch of caps and parts for the Monitor rebuild waiting for me to tackle. Rock the Resto! 

[Epyx]

Wow Opt2not...seriously nice work!  Friggin sweet! 

You so have me wanting to find a Black Tiger Jamma somewhere in our neck of the woods...wonder if one exists?

[Donkbaca]

Its nice, but in my opinion Burger King Diamond's NES pc and Vigo's SNES are better....

[opt2not]

Its nice, but in my opinion Burger King Diamond's NES pc and Vigo's SNES are better....

Hahahaha, thanks ya' jerky.

Wow Opt2not...seriously nice work!  Friggin sweet!  

You so have me wanting to find a Black Tiger Jamma somewhere in our neck of the woods...wonder if one exists?

Thanks bro.  Yeah you should! If you have the space for another cabinet, why not! I haven't seen one around here, but I'll be definitely keeping an eye out for ya.

I love mame, don't get me wrong, it suits it's purpose for a lot of games. But there is something about having dedicated cabinets of favourite games. Being able to just power it up quickly, playing on the original dedicated controls, learning how they originally worked...owning a classic game that was in arcade circulation... its so coooool! Mame was definitely my gateway drug.

[opt2not]

Last night I reseated the Roms including the big processor, flipped it on to no change in the blinking.

So, I figured I'd go around the board and re-flow some key solder points. Particularly the sockets, and resistors. I also double and triple checked my cap soldering.
Flipped it on again, to see that it went into steady free-play blinking! Yay! I was so happy!  I was able to hit start and have the constant lit P1 button on.
But, it didn't last.
Eventually it started rapid-blinking (resetting) again. I wiggled a few things around, the edge connector, some caps and resistors....but when I wiggled the roms I got it to change. I lightly pressed down on one corner of the Roms furthest from the processor, I was able to get it to go back into steady free-play blinking!

This leads me to believe that the socket isn't making good contact with the Rom legs when seated. Perhaps when I re-flowed the socket points, it shifted the connection for a moment then returned to the previous state.

So I've been pondering whether or not I should just replace the old sockets with new ones, or just get the Braze Hi-score kit and render these sockets obsolete. I've read on the Braze site that the old eproms aren't needed when installing the kit.

[Spyridon]

Don't but the Braze kit...yet.

He is almost done with the asteroids multi kit which would be the better buy.  Same functionality as the existing kit plus it adds asteroids deluxe and Lunar Lander to your cocktail.

P.S. This is coming along nicely.  Good descriptions and pictures too!
 

[opt2not]

Don't but the Braze kit...yet.

He is almost done with the asteroids multi kit which would be the better buy.  Same functionality as the existing kit plus it adds asteroids deluxe and Lunar Lander to your cocktail.

P.S. This is coming along nicely.  Good descriptions and pictures too!
 

Thanks! 
Yeah, I just might wait till then. For now I wanted to test my theory of the sockets, as well as eliminate another audio possibility, so I picked up a few things from a local electronics store:

- New IC sockets for the EPROMs (24 pin) and CPU (40 pin), both dual-wipe.
- New edge connector for the game PCB
- 2 new TDA 2002 audio amps for the A/R board (figured I'd get these since they didn't come with in Bob Robert's cap-kit, and they were available right away)

I replaced the old sockets with the new ones, they came out pretty smoothly since I use a solder sucker and braid to remove the old solder keeping them in place. They just lifted right out.

Here's a picture comparison of the old (top) to the new:

As you can see, the new ones look much more effective in making contact. The chips now slide in really snug, and connections feel more solid than the old.
So, as a first try, I flipped on the power, and voila!  The game boots into free-play attract mode perfectly!  No more rapid flashing, just steady flashing, and after I hit the P1 start button, it lights up solid as if in game mode. 
I'm pretty happy that I was able to narrow down on that problem, now onto the audio.

I replaced the old audio amps on the A/R board figuring it could help in fixing the bad speaker hum/buzzing I'm getting. But to no avail, it didn't.  I still get the same audio results as before. So this leaves me to my last solution of changing out the PCB edge connector, after that I'll have to dig a lot deeper.
I'll do this step next and report back.
 

[saleem]

had realy bad buzz from atseroids upright i got here,i changed the edge connector and it went away.

[opt2not]

had realy bad buzz from atseroids upright i got here,i changed the edge connector and it went away.

Were you getting the game sounds at the same time? Was it a buzz on top of them?
For me I get no game sounds whatsoever, just loud buzzing emanating from the speakers.

[jennifer]

        
If that speaker isnt new [or of the proper resisance] I would be checking for a stuck coil, being subjected to the elements like it was and all.
      Nice job by the way.

[opt2not]

       
If that speaker isnt new [or of the proper resisance] I would be checking for a stuck coil, being subjected to the elements like it was and all.
      Nice job by the way.

The speaker was swapped out with one I had sitting around. Same resistance.
The buzzing was less "crunchy" but still there instead of the audio.

I haven't had a chance to change out the edge connector, due to some other commitments, but I will probably get to it sometime this week. After that, I'm going to put the speaker buzzing problem aside and continue on with the Monitor. I don't want to get caught up by this as there's still a bunch left to do.

[saleem]

had realy bad buzz from atseroids upright i got here,i changed the edge connector and it went away.

Were you getting the game sounds at the same time? Was it a buzz on top of them?
For me I get no game sounds whatsoever, just loud buzzing emanating from the speakers.

i could play and hear the game but,the buzzing was realy bad,nearly to point where it put you off playing.like i say,i changed the edge connector after reading round and it went away.i just get an initial buzz from speaker on powering the cab and then it gos,about 1 sec thats all.

[opt2not]

I'm happy to say I got the sound issue resolved. I now have a working PCB!



I did a lot of reading, researching and pouring over the schematics in the last week or so, on how the sound works and what to look for. I ended up swapping out the LM324N located at P11 with a new one, and it turned out to be exactly what the problem was. I previously read this in Richie Knucklez's KLOV thread, but at least now I have a better understanding on how the audio is mixed. I removed the old LM324N, mounted a socket and installed the new one:


In addition to this fix, I also went ahead and outfitted a new PCB edge connector, with better shielded connections.
Here's the comparison from the old to the new:


You'll notice the new one is slightly thinner, but has better contacts (looks gold plated), and fits much more snug now.

I  wrapped the connections with heat-shrink-tubing to limit any interference I might get, I've read this is a good thing to do for reducing the amount of general speaker hissing. I'll clean up the wiring a bit more, so it's not so messy.

I didn't get any RAM or ROM failure tones when putting into test, so it sounds like my PCB is good to go!
Next up, the monitor repair.

Keep on rocking in the free world!  

[emphatic]

Is that a 56 pin (aka JAMMA) connector? In that case, I just found a casing for these on eBay (search for "jamma connector cover" ). It will fit on your connector perfectly if you have the thin kind (9 mm thick): http://www.emphatic.se/I_received_today/jamma_connector_cover.jpeg

Too bad for me that my connectors (in the cabinets) were about 12 mm thick.

[SirPeale]

Gold plated pins in YOUR situation are not better.  The gold reacts with the tin in the contacts, causing it to oxidize. 

http://www.advantagememory.com/home_page/support_link/faq/why_do_gold_and_tin_contacts_mak.htm

Sorry, man.    Otherwise, a fine resto!

[opt2not]

Gold plated pins in YOUR situation are not better.  The gold reacts with the tin in the contacts, causing it to oxidize. 

http://www.advantagememory.com/home_page/support_link/faq/why_do_gold_and_tin_contacts_mak.htm

Sorry, man.    Otherwise, a fine resto!

Aww crud. Thanks for the heads-up.
I guess I'll grab another edge connector and install it before I finalize this resto. It's just a pain in the  to re-wire those connectors. it's funny, I think I have a better time replacing sockets.

Is that a 56 pin (aka JAMMA) connector? In that case, I just found a casing for these on eBay (search for "jamma connector cover" ). It will fit on your connector perfectly if you have the thin kind (9 mm thick): http://www.emphatic.se/I_received_today/jamma_connector_cover.jpeg

Too bad for me that my connectors (in the cabinets) were about 12 mm thick.

Hmmm, those casings may be too big for this connector. The connector is a 44 pin. Jamma was standardized sometime in '85, from what I've read; this cabinet was made quite a few years before then. Thanks for the info though, I will definitely keep this in mind when I eventually get my hands on a Candy cabinet.
Did you pick them up for your cabs?  Man, your Egrets must have a sweet-sweet setup now eh?

As for the update:
I cleaned up the monitor this weekend, installed new transistors, and re-capped both the chassis and HV board.

Got a lot of dust out of the back of this thing.

Here's a before and after of the Chassis board. After looking around the board, I didn't see any damage to the components at all:


Here's a shot of the cleaned up neck:


I didn't' take a picture of the cleaned up HV board, but here's a before picture:


After all the clean-up and part replacements, I connected it all up to give it it's first go.
Unfortunately, I got no image at all.
Not even a dot. I turned up the brightness, to no avail. BUT, the neck was glowing strong, there was good monitor chatter, and the Chassis had it's LED lit.  I've read that when the LED is lit, the spot-killer is enabled, this happens to prevent any burning onto the screen when the monitor isn't getting any signal input. So I disconnected the monitor, and started checking voltages on connection pins from the PCB.

According to the B&W monitor faq, the following voltages (AC) should be present:
1 -  X Out  6.68
2 - X Ground  6.68
3 - Y Out  6.69
4 - Y Ground  6.69
5 - Z Out  6.70
6 - Z Ground  6.70
7 - 30VAC Center Tap  30.3
8 - Ground Center Tap  0
9 - Ground Center Tap  0
10 - 30VAC Center Tap  30.3
11 - 6.3VAC Center Tap  9.7
12 - Heater Ground  3.0

From my readings, I was only getting 29.8 on Pins 7 and 10... Zero on everything else. The PCB is not giving out any image signals, so I'm going to look at the components that relate to the vector generation and hopefully am able to pinpoint the problem.  Any tips on what to check for would be much appreciated!
 

[opt2not]

Figured I'd update this post.

I'm still trying to figure out why I'm getting no image on screen. After some more checking, and reading I've got to a point where I'm getting the proper VAC to the monitor but still nothing displayed.

On the Deflection board, I've done:
- a full cap kit. Checked and rechecked my work to make sure they were installed right.
- Continuity check on all Fuses - check out good as well.
- Re-soldered the header pins to make sure there were no cold or cracked solder points.
- Tested DB100 - checked out good.
- Spot-checked all components for burns, or faults - none that I can see
- Checked continuity between all traces, checked for breaks - again checked out good
- Replaced all chassis transistors on the metal frame, made sure they were mounted securely and not shorting

On the HV board:
- Installed cap kit
- Checked all diodes and the few small transistors on the board - good
- Checked the two transistors attached to the HV case (q900, q903) - good again
- Cleaned up the Anode cap, and diode connected to it - there is a slight darker colour around the diode, but I don't see any burning indication.

At this point, my suspicions are that the HV section isn't putting the proper juice out to the monitor.
I've got a verified working Asteroids PCB now. My G05-805 has no image displayed when the game is running. Spot-killer is LED lit, lamp heater is glowing strong, and I hear chatter from the monitor, and slight buzz/noise from the HV section. Fuses checked good. No burning, no smell. Just nothing on screen.

I feel that I'm so close! I'm going to read through the B&W Monitor FAQ and see if there's anything I'm missing. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

[jennifer]

 
          I would be wondering @ this point if the vid signal from the board was making the trip, maybe get the scope out [or borrow one].
   Otherwise that has got to be the cleanest chassis I"ve ever seen [used], You may have raised the bar a tad.

[Muffindude]

It's just a pain in the  to rewire those connectors.

Tell me about it. I just wired up my Pac-Man machine, and it is such a pain. Especially when you find out that you put on all the pins on the wrong side, and break one of the pins on the edge connector when you are desoldering all the wires.

[Kman-Sweden]

Any updates?

[opt2not]

Not much progress other than this:

I ended up getting my hands on another monitor that isn't 100% but it's closer than what the other one is has going on with it.
This monitor has good neck-glow, chatter, and the spot killer is on when powered up.  If I turn the brightness level up I get some lines on the screen that look like this:




I applied a cap kit, replaced the chassis-mounted transistors, and all the fuses on the deflection board. Still get the same image above and can't get the spot-killer to turn off.
I'm going to re-cap the HV section, but at this point I'm really suspecting that the signals aren't coming through properly from the board. The board I have is a known working one, I've already verified this.  But what I'm thinking is that the PCB edge connector I replaced earlier may not be wired-up correctly. I'm going to go back and verify my connections.  I've read and re-read the monitor faq, with not much of an explanation with what's next to look at. But at this point I'm willing to try anything, this project is lagging on too long.

[Paladin]

Are you sure you game PCB is working right?  Is this the same one you fixed the audio on?  Just because you can hear it play blind doesn't mean that the video output section is working properly.  If you haven't done so already, try your board in another machine to verify it works.

If you ever plan a trip to the Seattle area you're more than welcome to bring your board and monitor to my place to test in my Asteroids Deluxe cabaret, although you can probably find someone closer.

[opt2not]

Thanks man.
After doing a bit more research, and having a few more people on KLOV chime in, it's more and more looking like this is a board problem. The board I got was from a friend who told me it was working 100% the last time he checked. Perhaps something happened between now and then, but it looks like I can't really rule out the PCB. dammit, this project is really starting to annoy me, I can see now why fixing an Atari Vector game is a hazing for arcade repair.
I'm going to poke around the vector circuitry with my logic probe and see what I can find. My next suspect is the DAC IC's...which I'm hoping is not the issue since they're not cheap to replace.

[fredster]

Any updates on this?  I'm hanging here...
I have a working asteroids cocktail, but it didn't take me all this work.  Of course, mine didn't set out in the rain..

You have good hands. Don't give up.

[opt2not]

I haven't given up yet!  Just haven't had the time to dive too deep into this.
But I've got an extra week off for the holidays that I'm planning on putting in some serious project time. New Year's coming, which means new projects to start! Gotta sew up the old ones.

[fredster]

I worked on mine today.  (I've got one working, but it gets flaky on me.) I have two extra asteroids boards, both blink, no vector, no game play.  I have an asteroids deluxe board that is sweet. I was trying to do some work on the "dead" boards.

Personally, I think you still have board issues.

On mine, I'm either going to swap out the AR board to a -03 or I'm gonna see if Braze ever finished his asteroids multi-game. That way I only have to re-cap the AR, I don't have to replace it.

Here's another great link if for fixing a board if you don't have it already - http://usbdesigntech.com/asteroids/reference.htm

I have been working on this asteroids since I've had it.  It works for a while, then it blinks out.  But I love it, and I'll keep it running as long as there are parts left for it.

[opt2not]

Niiiice, thanks for the link. I'll add it to the link-list in my earlier post.  Yeah, I'm not going to rule out the PCB. Working without a oscilloscope on a vector game is turning out to be a real pain to troubleshoot. I don't really have the cash flow to get one, so I'll have to make due. But as soon as I get a chance, I'm going to start probing around.

It looks like the multigame kit has been stalled for a while now. Definitely going to pick one up if it ever comes out, also if I ever fix this thing!!

[opt2not]

Success!  Updated first post with pics.

Turned out to be a few bad traces and caps.
- Replaced old capacitors on HV cage
- Repaired open trace on main monitor board, there were a couple of almost imperceptible breaks in a couple of traces.
- Repaired trace shorting to chassis. The board was a bit warped, and when the power was put on, it was touching the chassis, shorting out and blowing a fuse)

[opt2not]

Crap.  I modified my previous post rather than just making a new one...  not enough coffee today.  Anyways, this restoration is done.